Bearing assemblies are used in a wide range of applications, including large-scale industrial applications, such as in mining and construction equipment. In these assemblies, the spherical rolling elements are typically larger than the spherical rolling elements in other bearing assemblies and the bearing rings can include filling slots to allow insertion of the spherical rolling elements into the races through the filling slots during assembly of the bearing. These filling slots typically include matching semi-circular recesses in each of the bearing rings, and the filling slots, combined with a radial distance defined between the radially inner ring and the radially outer ring, are dimensioned to accommodate the spherical rolling elements. Cages can be provided in these bearing assemblies to prevent the rolling elements from falling out of the filling slots. Conventional cages require crossbars and prevent a maximum number of rolling elements from being inserted between the rings due to the circumferential space required by the crossbars. It would be desirable to provide a retention element for a bearing assembly including filling slots that both minimizes the circumferential space between adjacent rolling elements and retains the rolling elements from falling out of the filling slots.